In the field of tissue products, such as facial tissue, bath tissue, table napkins, paper towels and the like, the tensile strength of these sheet products is often measured as the geometric mean tensile strength (GMT), which takes into account the machine direction (MD) tensile strength and the cross-machine direction (CD) tensile strength. The GMT is calculated as the square root of the product of the MD and CD tensile strengths. However, using a single strength value to characterize a sheet can be misleading because the MD and CD tensile strength values are typically very different, with the MD tensile strength being much greater than the CD tensile strength. In use, the product is more likely to fail because its strength is limited by the weakest link, namely the CD tensile strength. In response, some prior emphasis has been made on making products stronger in the CD, thereby reducing sheet failure caused by a relatively weak CD tensile strength.
Efforts to increase the CD tensile strength of tissue products such that it is equal to or greater than the MD tensile strength however have not been successful. Moreover, attempts to improve other CD properties, such as tensile energy absorption (TEA) and stretch, such that they are in parity with MD properties has not been successful. Therefore, there remains a need in the art for a tissue product having substantially similar MD and CD tensile strengths, while improving other important CD properties, such as TEA and stretch.